Rug Hooking Booklet Series

by Sally Van Nuys

These excerpts are just a hint of what you'll read in each of my booklets. I wanted to give you an idea of what's in each booklet.

Booklet One   "Once you decide that rug hooking is definitely for you, then you will want to get a wool cutter (stripper) - these machines cut several strips at one time, evenly and easily. There are several models on the market, and again, this is a matter of personal preference. I use Rigby strippers; I have tried Fraser and Bliss, but did not like them as well as the Rigby models. I bought my first on Ebay, and later bought a new one. Cutter blades for these strippers are changeable for different strip widths. Some can hold two cutter blades at the same time so you don’t have to change the blades if you are using two cuts in the same rug, or working on two projects using different cuts at the same time. Some cutters clamp to the edge of a table and others are free-standing. These photos show several different models and makes of cutters."

Booklet Two  "The Wool Mark is an internationally used mark, made up of interlacing lines forming a sort of Shamrock effect, which wool mills are licensed to use if their product is 100% Pure New Wool and of high quality. Get to know this sign. However, even wool bearing this mark may be unsuitable for rug hooking; worsted as well as woolen fabrics qualify to use it. Also, some woolen fabrics are treated to make them machine washable, "shrink-proof, or are otherwise treated so that they will not "Full"; a term for a small amount of shrinkage which is desirable for rug hooking, since it helps lock the individual fibers to each other and make strips less likely to fray during hooking. Most rug hookers find wool with up to 10% nylon content acceptable for hooking."

Booklet Three  "Once your rug is flat and dry, turn the excess rug foundation fabric to the back of the rug and lightly press to hold, allowing about 1/8-inch to show from the front of the rug. Now you need to decide how you wish to bind your rug for finishing. You can:

• simply add rug binding tape to the hem of the rug

• whip the edges with wool yarn or strips of wool fabric, or

• use a blanket binding technique

There are several other methods that you might try as time goes on, like covering cording with wool and attaching it to your rug’s edges, but these three are the most often used, so we will discuss ways to accomplish these here. The tape used for binding is 1-1/4" wide twill tape. Plan to have it match or harmonize with the color of the edge of the rug. Do not use iron-on tape binding. The tape comes in a variety of colors. I almost always use black to visually help anchor my rug on the floor. To match the tape color with the edge color of your rug, you can dye white or a light color binding if you dye your background wool."

Booklet Four   "Once your have the perimeter of your rug established, lay the tracing over your rug hooking foundation, align it straight with the lines you drew, then pin in place.. You will see that the lines drawn directly on the foundation don’t always line up with the lines you drew directly. This shows that it is especially important to draw those outer lines by hand, and not trace them — they will rarely be straight on grain if traced on. Now you can align your tracing within the outer lines, and transfer the rest of the design. If you used Red Dot Tracer, just retrace the lines with the permanent marker again (it works best with a fairly new marker.) Go slowly to allow the ink to penetrate the tracer fabric and go through to the foundation. When all the lines are traced, remove the Red Dot Tracer. You might have to remark some lines if they are not as dark as you like."

Booklet Five  "You have already thought about this in the design process — now think of it in terms of colors. Do you want it to be contemporary, antique-looking, bright and crayon-colored for a child, pastel and soft like a watercolor, or something else? Now, try to find something that already exists in the colors that you love. There are two broad categories that can help you: 1. manmade items, like fabric, clothing, wallpaper, greeting cards, and so on) and 2. natural items, like feathers, flowers, animals, insects, fish, sunsets, sunrises, trees, rocks, water, clouds, and so on. By visualizing colors of things you already know and love, you can better identify the shades and textures of colors that you will like in your rug."